The Cutest Thing
by Firestar9mm
Summary: Tea's thought during her duel with Mai in front of Pegasus' castle, and on the eyes that give her the courage to keep going. Reviews greatly appreciated.


Disclaimer: I don't own "Yu-Gi-Oh!" Which is just as well, cause if I owned Yami Yugi or Seto Kaiba, I'd make "Debbie Does Dallas" look like a Disney movie. *^_^* On with the fic, now that I've left that horrible mental picture in your heads.

*****

**The Cutest Thing**

*****

There is no anger in the eyebrow raise

When you do the ~F A N T A S T I C~ I am amazed

(Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories, "Alone")

*****

I'm a cheerleader. And if I say so myself, I'm pretty good at it. I can dance, swish my skirt and look adorable. I can do that job. Maybe it's not all that important, but it's what I can do.

Cheerleading is weird, you know? I mean, it doesn't matter what sport you're watching from the sidelines. You do your dance, you swish your skirt, and you cheer for the hero, because that's all you _can_ do. All you can do is yell as loud as you can and hope he hears you, hope he listens, hope he's led by your cheers. And when he isn't—when he loses—you feel somehow responsible. 

That's how I feel right now. Responsible. Utterly, utterly responsible for his loss, suddenly noticing how small his shoulders look, slumping under the weight of his incredible burden. He's not moving, staring past all of us into a middle distance. 

I have this wild urge to grab his wrist and feel for a pulse. In fact, I almost do it. The only thing that stops me is the silver glint of his dueling glove, looking pale and naked without its star chips.

The others have noticed it too. "Here, take mine, Yugi," Joey says, offering a handful of chips as gold as his own unselfish heart. 

The smaller boy doesn't move. Tristan blinks his dark eyes in confusion, just as Joey tries to get Yugi's attention by shaking his handful of chips. "Hey. Ground Control to Major Yuug." He chuckles at his own joke, but Yugi doesn't crack a smile, doesn't move. 

Tristan and Joey exchange puzzled looks over the smaller boy's head, like parents over the head of an unsuspecting child, while a vacancy sign goes up in Yugi's eyes. 

I'm all set to burst into tears when we're interrupted by someone—Mai Valentine, her blonde hair reminding me of the shine of lost star chips—so much that I'm thinking about heading over to the nearest bush to vomit. My stomach is in knots, and every second of silence from Yugi makes it worse.

Mai, in a remarkable and rare show of generosity, offers Yugi some of her extra chips. Her attempt is about as successful as Joey's.

They don't get it. Yugi wouldn't take the chips even if he was himself. It's just not his style to depend on the kindness of strangers. He'd rather lose fair and square than win dishonestly.

Speaking of losing, just _what _went wrong during that match with Kaiba? In my heart of hearts, I can tell something wasn't right. It wasn't like Yugi had never beaten Kaiba before—Yugi let Kaiba win. But why?

Mai's starting to get mad, her anger jerking my fogged brain back to the moment. "What, my star chips aren't good enough for you?"

For the first time since the last match ended, I speak, and it's to step in between them. "Don't yell at him," I order, in a voice that is much more confident and fierce than I feel.

Mai shoots me a brief, squinty smile, as if she's trying not to lose her temper. "Fine. Have it your way, Yugi. Your little friends can wipe your nose all the way back to the nursery! You win some, you lose some," she mutters to the silent duelist, turning to leave.

She makes me so mad! I'd just love to shoot her high horse out from under her. Someone's got to make her stop, someone ought to...

An idea sneaks into my head. And before I can tell myself that it's a bad idea—which it is—and that it will never work—which it won't—I'm calling out to her.

"Wait—"

Mai turns as if it's a chore. "Yeeeesss?" she asks, dragging the word out.

"What if I could win the star chips from you? That would make it fair, wouldn't it?" _Yugi would like that_, I think to myself. _Yes, this way is better._

Mai laughs at me, as if it's the funniest thing she's ever heard. It's a bully's laugh, an arrogant, snotty sound that you usually hear in a high school hallway. This time it's me she's laughing at, and there's no locker to huddle into to escape the sound. 

I hate it when people laugh at me.

"You? Win the chips from me?" Mai chuckles. "Oh, that is just the cutest thing."

I frown. We haven't even started dueling yet, and she's already not taking me seriously.

"Come on, Tea, honey, be serious. Without Yugi you're a fish out of water. You can't beat me."

I pout and can't stop myself from doing so, which only makes Mai laugh harder. "Challenge; is that the word you want to hear, Mai?"

She sees that I'm not going to let this go and smirks. "It'll do."

I take a deep breath and steel myself, and suddenly without warning I'm on the other side of a battlefield, waiting to be annihilated.

I'm petrified.

I can't remember ever being this scared in my life. Not ever. And even as I sway dizzily on the raised platform, my fogged brain fights to remember a time I WAS this scared, shuffling through my memories like a...

...deck...

...of cards.

I look down at my hand, which is clutching my deck of duel cards. Hard, so hard the corners are slicing into my skin. I've often sworn I'd shed my blood for my friends. If only that could be enough.

But it can't be enough. It won't be. The merciless eyes across the battlefield won't settle for anything less than my crushing defeat—

—or the best fight I've ever put up in my life.

I've never been up this high before. All I know of is standing beneath the raised platform, gazing up at Yugi. Something comes over him when he duels. It's as if he raises himself up to his full height, surveying the battlefield with an arrogant tilt of his head and a glint in his tip-tilted eyes.

His eyes...

I can't help but glance at those eyes again. Mai mistakes it for a plea for help. 

"Don't bother. Yugi's checked out, can't you tell? You're on your own, Tea. It's just you and me up here."

She ought to know better. Yugi can't help me right now. He can't even help himself. That's why I'm doing this, and a feeling of rightness surges in my heart at the thought. That's the way it _should_ be. Friends help each other. Yugi has helped all of us so many times. It's finally my chance to return the favor. And I won't let him down.

Down...

The ground looks so far away from these platforms. I feel disembodied, floating aimlessly like a small cloud, drifting into someone else's tomorrow. I wonder if Yugi feels like this when he's up here....No. He wouldn't. He's not afraid of anything. Not like me.

Another thought fights to the top of my brain, flaming into bright clarity for one shining second:

_I don't think I can do this._

"Come on, hon," Mai calls impatiently, a bit of steel beneath the sugary sweetness in her voice. "I don't have all day."

The saccharine tone irritates me almost as much as the endearment. This woman's getting on my nerves. She tortured Joey, she was mean to Yugi, and now she's treating me like a joke. I would just love to give her the ride she deserves...

I look down at my deck again. For a minute I wonder if there's anything in my deck strong enough to take on Mai, but another glance down at Yugi tells me the truth. It isn't the deck that has the power to beat Mai and help Yugi—that power lies with me alone.

I just don't know if it will be enough.

"Come on, Tea," Mai taunts. "Getting cold feet?"

"You wish," I say, but instead of strong and teasing like Yugi, my voice comes out shaky and uncertain. Damn it. I glance one more time at Yugi. _Look at me! Look at me! I'm doing this for you, don't you see! Help me, Yugi!_

Yugi doesn't look at me. I don't know if he even hears. In fact, Yugi hasn't said a word since Kaiba whirled and tore off into the castle, his coat flapping behind him like huge dark wings. Something's driving the elder Kaiba into that castle, sending him flying like the dragons he's so fond of.

Yugi, meanwhile, stands motionless like a broken marionette, strings limp, his face open and pale with a look I can't place. His eyes, instead of being tip-tilted and sparkling with the razor wit of the King of Games, are wide and shocky. He looks so small and sad at Joey's side and he won't look at me.

Part of me wants to scold him like Mai did, to make him look, but I know he won't hear. Part of me wants him to look, so I'll know he's okay, and our Yugi again. Part of me wants him to see me up here, at my absolute bravest, at my most terrified moment, to see the effort I'm making for him.

But a small part of me is glad he doesn't look. Those eyes are full of desert, and fear runs through them, kicking up dust behind its paws. I wonder if that place has always existed inside Yugi, if there's some small secret part of him that's never seen rain. Is it that razor-edged black hole in him that duels on those platforms? No, it can't be. How could such nothingness have such a knowing smile?

Mai is tapping one booted foot, waiting for me to seal my own fate. The battlefield between us is barren, empty, waiting for the dance to start. I'm so incredibly frightened of it, but I can see the same howling emptiness in Yugi's eyes. And I won't let it beat him. I won't let it beat me.

And so I sigh almost resignedly. "For the star chips." _For Yugi._ "Let's duel."

She nods her blonde head, and I begin.

"The Petite Angel, in attack mode." And I lay the card down, the angel materializing before me on the battlefield. My eyes scan over it warily, mistrustful of it to keep me safe.

"Ugh," Mai said. "That's so adorable I feel like throwing up. Do you have anything in that deck with fangs?"

I am this close to just forgetting the duel altogether and punching her out, but I think better of it. If she wants to think of me as this cute harmless thing, it'll just make it that much more satisfying when I knock her on her ass. "Are you going to stand there and call me names for twenty-seven minutes, or are we going to duel?"

Mai smiles almost boredly and plays her Harpie. _Quelle surprise_—she always plays her Harpie. She and the card look eerily alike as the monster materializes in front of her. The Harpie scares me, but that look in Yugi's dead, empty eyes scares me more.

The duel goes on. My heart rate quickens with every turn, and no matter what cards I flip, what moves I make, what monsters I summon, what corners I back myself into, Yugi pays me no mind. I'd give almost anything to see where he is—it's perfectly obvious his body is standing alongside the field, but Yugi himself is a thousand miles away.

"Give it up, Tea," Mai taunts after sweeping the field clean of my monsters. "Yugi's not even paying attention. Don't you see? There's nothing you can do. Why don't you just hang it up and go back to cheerleading?"

"I will not give up," I tell her. My voice is a bass growl, more animal than I've ever heard it, but it's watered down by a sudden rush of tears. "I won't give up on this duel, and I won't give up on Yugi, either. Not now. Not ever!"

Mai is giving me absolutely no credit for any of this. "Uh oh. If you're about to go into one of your little speeches about friendship, do I have time to run out and get hit by a bus first?" 

That one startles me. I mean, she's been throwing acidic bon mots at me all through the match, but that one stings. I feel a tear slide down my cheek and hate myself for it. She's been dominating the entire match, and for all my brave talk, all I've managed to do is cry. Luckily for me, I don't think Mai notices. She's preoccupied with teasing me.

"Just save your little words of wisdom, Tea. I've heard it all before. And from the look on Yugi's face—" She casts a glance over to the owner of that name. "—so has he."

The more she annoys me, the more determined I am not to give up, but her zapping of my Magician of Faith has shaken me. And no matter what I think, she's right about one thing—Yugi's not paying any attention to us. I angle a glance down at him. _Points for effort here, Yugi?_

I ought to know better. No one gets an "A" for effort here. It's all about the win.

"Okay," I said breezily, with a confidence I don't feel. "Now I start trying." And I draw a card.

_Shining Friendship_. My breath hushes outward in a little sigh, and I remember black marker across the paleness of hands. Four hands. 

A little smile curls my lips. I am not alone, and maybe, just maybe, I can do this.

"Shining Friendship!" I announce. My hand shakes as I play the card, but thankfully my voice does not.

Mai's laugh is an abrupt snort of acid that transforms her pretty face into the countenance of the Harpie Lady. "You kept me waiting for _that_ little butterball? If you pull one more cutesy creature, I'm going to have to give myself an insulin shot!"

I wouldn't mind shooting her myself, but I'm going to get her where it really hurts—her life points. "Laugh while you can, Mai, because I'm about to spread the rain all over your parade!" I display the Silver Bow and Arrow I've rescued from the graveyard pile. "I equip Shining Friendship with the Silver Bow and Arrow!"

Mai's smile falters just a little around the edges, and if she's nervous, I want to keep her that way. "And that's not all. I also play the magic card Elf's Light, which makes my Shining Friendship two thousand attack points strong."

I try to sound as brave and predatory as Yugi when I yell "_Go_, Shining Friendship—attack Harpie Lady!"

"Too little, too late, Tea," Mai protests smugly. "My Harpie's still stronger than Tinkerbell over there."

"I think not," I counter smartly, flipping another card to show her. "Or does the magic of De-spell not work on you, Mai?"

Now she _is_ surprised and doesn't even try to hide it. I can't help but smirk as the Harpie Lady shatters into a holographic cloud of pixillated dust. "Bull's eye, for friendship!" I snicker.

Mai blinks at me, as if I've suddenly done something interesting. It's the same look she gave Joey when he took out her Harpies before—as if I suddenly weren't a complete waste of time.

_Be careful, Tea, _I warn myself. _She still hasn't played that card she's got face-down_.

Mai looks down at Yugi for the first time, as if she expects to see him move or speak. I suddenly get the feeling that I've impressed her, and that she's waiting for Yugi to echo that feeling.

But there's no response from the small duelist. I can't help but be crestfallen. That was the most brilliant move I could hope to play, and the only person who I would want to know about it didn't even see it.

Mai touches the card she has face-down, and I prepare to be annihilated. There are no more rabbits to pull out of my hat, and I want this duel to be over. I've been brave enough for one day, and I'd really like to just pack up my toys and go home.

But she doesn't flip it.

I wait, and she purses her lipsticked mouth, as if weighing her options. She looks at Yugi again, then at her dueling glove, then at Yugi again, then at _me_. Her gaze lingers the longest on me, as if she's trying to see inside my head and figure out what I'm _really_ doing up here.

A few more minutes pass before I realize that I am actually not going to be destroyed. Mai's not going to flip that last card. It doesn't occur to me to wonder what it is. Part of me wants to know _why_ she's not playing it, but as long as she doesn't, I'm still in. I still have a chance.

And with a sway of her hips, she saunters off the platform. "Not bad, Tea. I forfeit. You beat me!"

I start to automatically retort, to fend off her insults, before what she's actually said registers. "What? That's it? Giving up already?" I make my voice sound incredulous, ready for more dueling action. Which is a complete lie—if she gives up the match, it'll be the best news I've heard all day.

Angels, petite or otherwise, must be smiling down on me today. Mai is already off the platform, feet on the ground again. I can't wait to do the same. I manage to force my face into a bored look as I say, "Good match, Mai."

"Yeah, whatever. I didn't need these anyway," she says absently as she drops the star chips into my hand. They shine for a minute, airborne, blinding to the eye. I look down at them (_I won I did it_) and feel their weight in my hand (_I didn't think I could I can't believe this_), unable to believe they're real.

Star chips. Enough to get Yugi back to ten. Enough to get him into the castle, to Pegasus, to his grandfather. I've done it. I've won, and the star chips are mine. I've never seen anything more beautiful!

But that's a lie. I immediately see something even more beautiful as soon as I turn around. A spark of light, of life, in the depths of Yugi's eyes. I can _see_ the sanity return to his face in waves, and inwardly I collapse from relief and exhaustion.

I'm suddenly shy. I thrust the star chips out in front of me. "I won these for you, Yugi," I say. "Here."

The smile he graces me with could give a boulder wings. "Thanks, Tea," he says. "This means a lot to me."

"Oh, come on. Don't get all mushy on me. You're making me blush." I hurry the words, causing them to trip over each other. A nervous chuckle follows hot on their heels.

Yugi's staring down at the star chips like _he_ can't believe it, either—like they're the coolest thing he's ever seen in his life. I smile at his awe of them. _I_ did that for him. _I_ won the match, _I_ beat the Harpie Lady. I can probably do anything I want for the next fifteen minutes, before the magic wears off...

Magic...

It only occurs to me at _that_ point that Mai let me win. Whatever that card was that she didn't play, it probably could have smashed my entire deck _and_ the platform I was standing on. But why...?

Mai's walking away, her hair swinging heavy and gold in the sunlight, and she turns back, not breaking her stride, to give me a smile. It's a swift communication meant only for me, and it isn't at all like her normal smile—rather it's friendly and knowing, as if to say We Understand Each Other.

_She's not just paying Yugi back for Panik, _I realize. _She_ knows. _Mako Tsunami duels for his father, Yugi Motou duels for his grandfather...and I have dueled for Yugi. She realized that, and she let me win._

And I didn't say thank you, I realize dumbly, but Mai's already gone. However, before I can give it any more thought, the duel is wiped from my immediate attention by Yugi's voice. I have eyes only for him as he puts the star chips back in his glove.

"Tea, this is wonderful. Thank you," Yugi repeats, glancing up at me.

"You said that already," I say, and could kick myself for it. I try to lighten the mood. "Hey, if anyone needs to get into the Emerald City, I'm your girl."

Beneath Joey and Tristan's chuckling I can hear the flood of relief that Yugi seems to be back to normal.

"Awww," Joey drawls. "Tea's blushing. Ain't _that_ the cutest thing?"

Tristan stomps Joey's foot—my hero!—but Yugi isn't paying any attention to anyone except me. He's looking from the star chips to me and back again, over and over.

"Come on, you losers," Mai yells from the stone staircase. "A glacier just passed you guys on its way to the castle."

Tristan and Joey immediately take off after her. "Hold it, Valentine!" Joey yells, to which Mai responds, "No way!" 

"Tea," Yugi interrupts softly, then shakes his head. "It's just that I don't know what to say."

"I do," I say, indicating the castle with a flip of my head. "Let's go!"

He grins at me and nods. 

Following him, I smile and give myself a pat on the back for a job well done. I proved that I don't always have to stand on the sidelines and lead the cheers.

Here's hoping I'll never have to do _that_ again!

*****

Author's Note:

This was the first "Yu-Gi-Oh!" fic I ever wrote, and after a lot of slicing and dicing, I've finally deemed it ready to post. I don't know why I find it very easy to chat with Tea—I think she and I would have been good friends in high school (but I probably would have fought her over Yugi *^_^*. Mmm...Yugi.) I was also a cheerleader when I was in high school (how's _that_ for crazy? _Me,_ a cheerleader—but it's true) and we cheerleaders have to stick together, anyhow. *^_^*

The lyrics at the beginning of the story are from the song "Alone" by Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories, and can be found on the album, "Tails". When I hear that line it just makes me think Tea and Yugi all over—it especially reminds me of the manga, when Yami Yugi saves Tea from the escaped convict at Burger World with a bit of gamesmanship and a lighter. *^_^* Joey's early comment to try and get Yugi's attention contains elements of the song "Space Oddity" by David Bowie, which has been faithfully breaking my heart ever since I first heard it in the sixth grade. 

I love to watch the duel I based this fic on, but I decided to give Tea some fangs and claws in place of a couple of her gooey lines about friendship. When I first sat down with the fic in my head, I waved the Cyber Shield and Rose Whip cards at her, my laptop on the table, and said, "Come on! Try them on and see how they look." This fic is the result. What do you think? Reviews of all kinds are greatly welcomed—please be constructive.


End file.
